Yet—would you believe it?—from that dinner-party dates Mrs. Vere Veneer’s rise as a London hostess. Of course everybody did not discover, as I did, that it was a kind of “complimentary benefit” party, but the dinner and the floral decorations were talked about, and Mrs. Cordial used her influence to obtain paragraphs in certain gossipy papers, to the effect that Lord Thingamy dined with Mrs. Vere Veneer, and that there were also present So-and-So and So-and-So, the best known of the guests, while the amiable hostess looked charming in something or other. Since that time Mrs. Vere Veneer has been able to walk alone, and now she turns the tables, and “takes up” Mrs. Cordial or not, as she finds it expedient. It is now more useful to take a lady of title about with her as a companion; and as she buys tickets for everything, drives in handsome carriages, and always collects about her a little coterie of pleasant people, she never finds this difficult. It looks well in the papers that “Mrs. Vere Veneer brought Lady Snooks,” or that “those inseparables, Lady Clara Gushington and Mrs. Vere Veneer, looked in on their way from Mr. Lemon Yellow’s Studio Tea.” Mrs. Veneer has acquired the habit of regarding everything from the point of view of social advancement. She is of the world worldly, and though her provincial simplicity has quite worn off, she maintains a universal amiability that sometimes passes for it. She is charming to everybody, and her hospitality is proverbial, for she distributes her cards wherever she goes, but not to any one whose name is never heard. If she goes anywhere and there is an actor, an artist, a musician, or even a journalist in the room, with whom she was not previously acquainted, be sure you will meet him at her next party. Of course, any one who “receives” is promptly angled for, and they will be mutually visiting each other before the week is out. Mrs. Vere Veneer literally stalks drawing-rooms for social entities or Bohemian “somebodies,” and she is so pleasant about it that nobody attempts to resist her, and every one goes to her, and the lady-journalists look upon her with a sort of reverence, and thank Providence that there is a Mrs. Vere Veneer, for she is always profitable “copy” to them. And, indeed, there be many others who find her profitable, for she spends much money in her endeavours to exploit Society. It is an expensive business and a fatiguing, for she must be always on the move, always on the alert for the latest sensation. If a new form of entertainment for evening parties arise, Mrs. Vere Veneer promptly commissions one of the Bond Street agents to secure it for her next “At Home.” Failing this, she falls back upon those of her professional acquaintances who sing, or play, or ventriloquise for guineas and a good supper.